Probe panel visits Vikas aide Bauwa encounter site in Etawah

Kanpur:A three-member inquiry commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) B S Chauhan, set up by apex court to probe Vikas Dubey encounter and the circumstances that led to it, on Thursday visited Mahewa area of Etawah, the encounter site where Bauwa alias Praveen Dubey, an aide of gangster Vikas Dubey, was gunned down by the police on early July 9 morning.

Police sources informed TOI that the commission headed by Justice (retired) Chauhan, former DGP (retired) KL Gupta and Justice (retired) Shashikant Agarwal, accompanied by Etawah district and officials reached the spot amid tight security and began investigations.

The encounter scene was recreated and the authorities had already cordoned off the encounter spot. “The commission questioned policemen involved in gunning down Bauwa, besides also inquiring about the latter's three other aides who managed to flee the site. The members also questioned cops as to from where did they receive tip-off about Bauwa’s movement, besides how did they corner the alleged criminal,” said police sources.

The Commission also recorded statements of the villagers including Manoj Kumar Chauhan, Jitendra Kumar and Durgesh, who live in the vicinity of the encounter site, besides were the first to witness the encounter spot, amid the presence of district and police officials including SSP Akash Tomar.

“Thereafter, the commission also asked police about videography, photography and postmortem report of Bauwa Dubey and spent nearly half-an-hour at the encounter site,” said the SSP.

Bauwa was gunned down around 3 am on July 9 on the highway near Mahewa under the limits of Bakewar police area of Etawah. A Swift Dzire car DL-1ZA-3602 was looted by four armed SUV borne assailants. At around 4.30 am, however, they were intercepted at Kachaura road under the limits of Civil Lines police station by the police. It was when the police parties chased them, the Swift Dzire collided with a tree and criminals sprayed bullets on the police team.

In the retaliatory action, one criminal identified as Bauwa Dubey sustained critical injuries. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead. One pistol, a rifle and several cartridges were recovered from his possession. Three others however had managed to escape on the SUV.

To recall, eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed and killed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Vikas Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on July 2 & 3.

Dubey was killed in an encounter on the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti area, the police had said. Prior to Dubey’s encounter, five of his alleged associates were killed in separate encounters.


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